Reviews

Review: The LEGO® Batman Movie: The Making of the Movie

When The LEGO Movie came out in 2014, one of the lead characters (that stole the show for some) was Batman. A snarky, ego driven Dark Knight was full of fun and humor while still true to the spirit of the 75 year old character. Now, years later, Batman gets his own movie that not only continues the charming cad from The LEGO Movie, but celebrates the history of every iteration of the character.

The LEGO® Batman Movie came out to rave reviews, but it’s just as entertaining to look at the creative process and see what inspirations they took from existing Batman materials and how the movie was formed. To coincide with the release of the film, DK books released The LEGO® Batman Movie: The Making of the Movie, which shows how the ideas in the movie were formed and turned into what was seen on screen.

The book opens by giving a feel for how the process worked, from ideas to script to recording to collaborating with The LEGO® Group to creating the film. For anyone who wants to see how a movie gets made, it is a good overview of the process, but only lasts about a dozen pages. After that, we get to see the world of Batman.

The move breaks down into three main sections – locations, characters, and vehicles. The locations gives a real in depth feeling of the world. Each location starts with the sketches of the location as it was envisioned by the artists and shows a contrast to what we see in the movie. I really like being able to see the details that blur by in the movie shown clearly to read. Background characters and billboards are shown off for the reader, which will be fun to look for when rewatching the movie. The only bad part is the disappointment of not being able to get some of the signs and minifigures for my own displays.

With so many costume variations, it’s cool to see what different looks the artists played with before finalizing on the designs in the movie. Of course, Batman had many looks in the film and many costumes in the background, but not only do you get to see those, you get to see ones that didn’t make the cut to be in the film. While Batman had a pretty set look, characters like Batgirl, Robin, Joker, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn went through quite a few different designs before settling on the ones in the movie. As cool as the ones are that they ended up using, I wouldn’t mind seeing some of these other iconic designs show up as minifigures one day.

Batman has many iconic vehicles, like the Batmobile and Batplane, but even they have gone through many different designs over the years. Variations of the different Bat vehicles were toyed with as designs for the movie before utilizing the ones that we saw in the theaters. Of course, many of those classic Bat vehicles did show up in the background of the Batcave, so the history of Batman was seen on screen. With less iconic vehicles for the Rogue’s gallery, the designers had more freedom to explore new ideas and they show them off from sketches to initial designs to the final form (and even some that were completed but not used).

As a LEGO® builder and Batman fan, The LEGO® Batman Movie: The Making of the Movie was a treasure trove of ideas that went into making a fun movie. Getting good looks at the design process and the different builds – especially the ones that weren’t turned into LEGO® sets – makes me want to build more Batman MOCs. The LEGO® Batman Movie: The Making of the Movie comes highly recommended for anyone who wants more from the movie or just wants to see more Batman LEGO®.